# See the Blesser not the blessings

Key Passage: Psalm 46:1-3
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles to Psalm 46 tonight. Psalm 46. Praise the Lord for Brother Bradley. Good, godly man, and a blessing for many years, I guess a couple of years. I appreciate Brother Badler; he’s a blessing. He really is. Appreciate his faithfulness.

Psalm 46. We’re going to start verse number one, Psalm 46 and verse number one of God’s Word. And if you’re able, would you stand as we read God’s Word together, Psalm 46 and verse number one. We’ll start out tonight just to show the Word of God respect. Amen. Are we all there tonight? Amen? Good deal. That’s great.

And verse number one, here we go: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”

I mean, if there’s no earth to hide behind or stand on, the mountains are moving, you still don’t have to fear. God’s got it.

And verse number three: “Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” Selah. He just said, doesn’t matter what’s going on. Even creation could go crazy. It’s going to be all right. God’s got you.

And for just a little while, we want to focus on verse number one just a bit tonight. Would you pray that God would use this, maybe just to give you security in Christ and the Lord and rest in Him?

Sometimes, you know, sheep—they say sheep—they won’t eat if they’re just fidgety. They’re fearful. They just kind of have to have a piece about them, a little bit to eat, to drink like they ought to. And the sheep are just always nervous and irritated, no peace, no rest. It really affects our health in a bad way. And we’re God’s sheep, you know. And let’s just pray that God gives us a peace through this tonight. Would you do that? Pray that God gives that to you tonight.

Well, we come, and Lord, I cannot give that. Lord, I confess that right off the bat, but I know you can. And Lord, I pray that you, through your Word and Father said in your Spirit, would bring just a spirit of peace and rest to your sheep tonight. Lord, would you use the message to that end? Please, Lord, do it. I cannot. I think about that where you said over there, Lord, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” said the Lord of hosts. Father, would you build temples tonight with your Spirit? And we’ll thank you, Lord, for what you do. We ask for this, Father, in your Son, Jesus’ name, so we’re asking it in faith. And we’ll thank you for it. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

Would you notice that verse, verse number one again, and notice these words: “God is our refuge and strength, a very…” What’s the next word? “…present help in trouble.”

Last summer, my wife and I had a vacation of a lifetime. When we came back, we talked about it. In fact, in Wednesday night, I kind of gave a report about it, turned it into a message a little bit. We’re spoiled rotten. God’s so very, very good to us. He really is.

But we flew into Bozeman, Montana, and we had already rented a big old street glider, Harley Davidson. And we picked that thing up, and we rode the Rockies. I mean, we went Glacier National Park. We rode the Rockies. My wife on the back, she dressed properly. And we rode that thing all over. We were hippies for a week, amen! I mean, tell you what? I had a bandana and all that. No, we didn’t have all that, but we had a great time.

And here’s the thing we had: as we went up, I remember right, the east side, kind of the Rockies, Glacier National Park, crossed over and came down the west side of the Rockies. But all along that way, we had Airbnbs rented out ahead of time. So we knew where we were going to stay, you know, Monday night and Tuesday night, Wednesday night and all that, for the most part. We stayed a little bit, but for the most part, all Airbnbs. And it was nice that everything was kind of planned out. Well, where are we going to be out tonight? I think a night or two we stayed at the same place, but for the most part, we knew where we were going to be.

I mean, you know, when you’re riding a motorcycle and all your luggage is in the saddlebag, you got to stuff it all in there. You’re limited, you know, what you can carry. But it was kind of a comfort. Well, we already have a bed and, you know, towels and all. We had all this help lined up for us ahead of time. It has a little bit of a comfort to that.

But can I tell you this? That’s going to sound depressing, but it’s true. God will not do that as far as your help. Notice what he says there: “God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble.” I like it if I can see the help. It’s lined up. The help. There’s all the help. But God doesn’t do that. God said, in time of trouble, I’m a very… present. I’ll be there.

Notice this. Notice what he says there. Look back in that verse. What’s the word before present? What does he say there? “A very present help.” In other words, God’s saying, you’re going to have trouble down there. I’m not going to give you everything you need before. You’re not going to be able to look and say, well, our Airbnbs are lined up there. But God’s assuring you when you have trouble, God will be there. He’s a very present help in trouble. He’s not going to give you all that help way ahead of time, but when you have the trouble, it’ll be there. It’ll be a very present.

You’ve heard it said, God’s never early, he’s never late, he’s always right on time. He’s a very present help in trouble.

Now, our flesh, and my flesh, likes for it all to be lined up where I can see what all is ahead of—you know, get it all scheduled out—but God didn’t work like that. God says, no, no, no, no. But when you have trouble, you can count on it. He is a very present help in trouble.

Now, you can rest in that. So here’s the thing: if he gave us help ahead of time, we would need this very important element to God called faith.

And help me out, you know it, you know it, church. What’s the thing that pleases God? Faith. So let me just kind of say this at the beginning of the message here: Get used to living by faith. Our flesh wants to say, man, I want to get it where we’ve got so much money in the bank account. I’ve had this job for so many years; it’s very secure. We’ve got everything lined up. We’ve got a house, got it paid for. We got this, all that. And that’s what our flesh wants, but God said, no, no, no, no, no, no. “I’m a very present help in trouble.”

And get used to that. I fear sometimes that, take at the beginning of the church—well, man, everything’s by faith, you know, and you have to be by faith—but I fear sometimes, okay, the church has been going 23 years, God’s been so wonderful to us, we have building, land, it’s all paid for, wonderful people in our church, and all these things, you know, it’s kind of stable, if you will, now. But human eyes… and I think sometimes, am I living off of faith? Because if I’m not, I’m not really pleasing God. Because without faith, it’s impossible to please God.

So I just get used to get in the habit of living by faith. I like that song old Esther Olof used to sing it a lot: “Living by faith in Jesus alone, trusting, confiding in His great love, from all harm safe in a sheltering arms, I’m living by faith and I feel no alarm.” Man, get used to living by faith. It’s almost a mindset of spirit about you. Hey, it’s going to be all right. God’s got it.

And get used to that. Because the Lord, he doesn’t give you—he’s not going to have it all right, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do this, you’ve got this Airbnb—God doesn’t do it, no, no, no. But when trouble’s there, “I’m a very present help in trouble.” He’s never going to be late. But it’s not going to be early either. So don’t see it through the eyes of your flesh. You’re going to get fearful then. See it through the eyes of faith.

“Very present help.” So here’s a good thing about it: you can count on it when trouble comes down your road, all right? He looks up and he said, “Let me see here, let me find out that road.” I’m trying to think about it. Ellie Drive? I know the Cooper’s Road. Trouble turns down Ellie Drive. Is it 5-E-11? Wow, I’m surprised too. And he goes down and he says, “No, no, not five, six, not five, eight, not five, ten.” No. That’s the house I’m visiting, you know. And Brother Kevin Mystery says, “Oh no, trouble’s out there.” And he pulls in your driveway. Now you can be assured when he pulled his vehicle into your driveway, there’s another vehicle right beside it called Jesus. Trouble will never, ever, ever pull in your driveway without God Almighty pulling in your drive because he’s a very present help in trouble. He’ll always be there.

Man, you can look outside your door and say, “Man, I hear the rumbling of trouble out there.” You look outside your door and say, “Ooh, God’s there.” He’ll always be there. A very present help in trouble. He’ll always do it. But our flesh wants to do it ahead of time. But God said, no, no, no. I’m never, never late, but I’m never early. I’m always right on time. God wants us to count on that.

That’s why it says over in Psalm 23: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art…” Yeah, he doesn’t want you to have fear. And it’s a comfort, just mark it down: Trouble’s coming, God’ll be there. He’ll always be there. Trouble’s knocking at your door. Hey, open the door. Say, “Wait, where’s Jesus at?” He’ll be there. He’ll always be there. You can bank on that.

Now, there’s something else about this verse here. I want you to see this. I think this is very, very important. I want you to kind of notice how he starts off in this verse here, verse number one. What’s the first word of the verse? God. I want you to notice the emphasis. Let me say it this way: God doesn’t just send you help; He is the help.

Notice how the emphasis is upon God really through this whole Psalm. “God is our refuge.” You see, if he sent you all the help ahead of time, the help that he sends would be a refuge, but God doesn’t want that. God is our refuge. See? If God sent me all the help and had an Airbnb lined up ahead of time, you would put your security in all those helps that God sends. But God doesn’t want that. He wants your security to be in Him.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried in the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. Think about that.

“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her right early.” The heathen rage and the kingdoms were moved: He uttered his voice, the earth melted.

“The Lord of hosts is with us.” You see how the emphasis is? The Lord is with us. “The God of Jacob is our refuge.” Selah.

“Think on this: Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh a bow and cutteth a spear in sunder; he burneth chariots in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

You see, God’s a jealous God. Exodus 34:14 says, “God, his name is Jealous.” Show that to Jehovah’s Witnesses every once in a while, you know. His name is Jealous. He’s not going to share his glory. He’s a jealous God.

Have you ever heard of this happening? Sometimes when newlyweds this happens. Maybe if the wife is staying at home and—praise the Lord—she won’t take care of things. And that’s a wonderful setup. And the guy works. Maybe he’s got a pretty good job, and he brings home a pretty good check. This could happen to anybody. It seems like a lot of times in newlyweds, and the wife, she likes that check coming home. And if she’s not careful, she begins to make a pretty big deal over that check coming home. And she just really emphasizes, “Woo, the check coming home!” And if they’re not careful, the husband can get a little jealous. He feels like my wife’s more in love with the check than with me. Well, the Dumper says amen to that right there, you know. Y’all are not newlyweds. Come on now, you know. Oh, you see that happening sometime? Brother Dumper probably sees that happen.

And friend, God—God’s jealous. And if I’m not careful, if God sends help and I really just put all my stakes in the help, God’s kind of like, “What about me?”

“God is our refuge.” He wants to be the one you run to, not that bank account, not the insurance. I’m not saying these things are bad. And I understand that. But what did he say over there? “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why? “That trusteth in his riches.” That’s the problem right there. God, he said, no, no, I’m a very present help in trouble. I don’t want you making a big deal about all the help. I want you to make a big deal about me. Because I don’t just send help; I am the help.

See, He is a very present help in trouble. The emphasis is all over the Bible. Let me just share a couple of verses, some of them we already mentioned already. “I will fear no evil.” Then Psalm 23, the shepherd saw him there: “I will fear no evil.” Why? “For Thou art with me.”

Look over there in the Psalms—excuse me, Isaiah. Isaiah 26th, great verse, Isaiah 26:3. You’ll know that one. And it’s a wonderful promise about perfect peace. Philippians talks about peace that passes all understanding, should keep your hearts and minds. But over here it talks about perfect peace. And notice what it says over here. Just want you to notice how God says, “I don’t want you to just focus on my blessings and what I do for you. I want you a step higher. I want you to focus on me.”

Look over in Isaiah 26, look in verse number three: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on…” All the blessings? No, I think we’ll praise God for the blessings, but deeper than that, “whose mind is stayed on Thee.” What’s the last part? “Because he trusteth in…” All the blessings? No, “because he trusteth in Thee.”

Look at the next verse, great verse: “Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” You see how the Bible wants you to focus on God? We’re so prone to focus on things down here, but the eyes of faith see beyond that and they see God.

“Every good and every perfect gift comes from where?” From above. “From the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither the shadow of turning.” You see the focus? If I enter into true worship, it goes beyond just praising God for the things down here, and I see Him. God wants that.

Dad. Everything’s going to be all right because Mom or Dad’s there. God likes that. He’s her Father. I want you to call anybody else’s father on the earth besides Him as far as spiritually. Matthew 23rd. That’s what God wants. He wants you to trust in Him.

Look at this: 1 Corinthians 10:13. You’ll know the verse. 1 Corinthians 10:13: “There hath no temptation”—that’s trial, trouble, testing—“taking you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” Watch this: “But will with”—not before, not ahead of time, not after, but with—“very present help”—“but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Let me say this: He doesn’t come and show you the way of escape. He says He comes with the temptation and He makes a way of escape. In fact, Jesus said, “I am the what?” The Way. He is the Way. He comes with the temptation. He makes the way because He is the Way. See, the focus is all about Him. And that’s what He wants, where we’re just so focused—His children are focused on Him. Everything’s all right. Fine, “Thou art with me.”

That’s what He wants, just be peace. I’ve talked about it so many times, but our sheep—we had for a while Snowball. And I don’t know, we had her a year or two there, and Sarah—it was Sarah’s sheep when Sarah was maybe 10 years old, I don’t know. And that sheep got it when she was a lamb. Grew up. That sheep knew that Sarah was her shepherd. And sheep get real fidgety when there’s storms coming or there’s dogs—new dogs in the neighborhood. That always gets them, you know. I mean, the market of dogs just gets some fidgety. They want to eat and all that. But Sarah could come out there with Snowball, and Snowball would just calm right down. Father Shepherd. That’s what the world wants to be to you. He wants you so in tune to Him, so focused on Him, doesn’t matter what trial is going on. That’s all right. Here’s a very present help in trouble. He’s with me.

Harland Popoff. He wrote the book, Tortured for His Faith. Anybody ever read that book? Tortured for His Faith? Some of you have. I’d recommend it. It’s a good book. I found one of the old copies I got in my office here, Tortured for His Faith. It’s been out for years. Great book. I don’t know that every single one of his doctrines I agree with, but for the vast majority, he’s a great godly man. He’s in heaven now. But he was in prison in Bulgaria years and years ago, and it was torture for 13 years. And in the book, he really describes what all he went through. It’s very interesting.

David Smith, Dr. David Smith preached for us last Sunday. He said when he was young, his dad pastored, and he said, “We had—we had a Harland Popoff in.” And he said, “Hey, take him to the—you know, out to eat and take him to the hotel and all those things.” And he said he said I asked Brother Smith about it one time we’re riding in the truck, but he said he’s a little bit strange in some ways because of what all they’ve been through in prison. I asked him about it. He said, “I would have to take him to a…” When I took him to the hotel, he said, “I hadn’t read the book, so I didn’t realize who I was with till I read the book later on.” So, wow, I got to carry this guy around, you know, host him.

But he said, “I’d take him to a hotel, and we would have to go to the room with the manager.” And he said, “When we get in the room, he said, everybody had to be quiet.” And he said, Harland Popoff would just—everything would just still. And he said, “Have you heard any noise?” And he said, “Half the time, I didn’t hear anything, but he said, I’m hearing something, and I can’t stay in this room.” They have to go to another room.

Part of that is all those years of torture. One of the things they would do for—I think maybe several years; it was 13 years, I was reading a little bit today—at one prison, they would—I think every 10 minutes—they would take an iron bar and just hit those bars, and it sounded like a gun going off. And he told, I think his roommate or something, he said, “Man, I can’t sleep.” And he said, “Yeah, that’s why they’re doing that.” And all these tortures, you know, for a… I can’t remember how long when he first got in. They would put him about two inches from a white wall—white wall, two inches—eyes open, very bright in that room. And if his eyes blinked, they’d hit him. And you imagine staring at a bright white wall two inches from it, and if you blink, you’re going to get hit. And they did that night after night. They’re trying to break him down so that he would confess, denounce Christ.

And so all these tortures, so you understand when they go to these rooms, there’s certain noises. He just, man, I can’t sleep, I can’t take it. That stuff affects you, you understand. But Harland Popoff, he was going through the tortures for Christ, tortured for his faith, 13 years in a Bulgarian prison when there was an Iron Curtain and all those things. And it came to one point where he was just physically just exhausted, drained.

I’m going to read a little bit out of his book. He says, “For the first time in over a year, I began to fear for my sanity. Had I been here for a day or for 20 days, for an hour or for weeks, only occasionally would I hear a voice, and an iron gate would open, and a metal plate would be scooted on the floor with a little water and three or four carrots or a rotten potato with worms in it. I now resigned myself to spending the rest of my life here. Mentally, I had accepted it.”

“One day while I was praying, the hopelessness of my situation struck me full force. Starved, beaten, forgotten here. I knew there was no hope of ever getting out. It was a high-ranking officer who told me I would rot here, and he meant business. Tears came to my eyes. For weeks I had been like this. ‘Oh, God,’ I cried.”

“Then something happened which has never happened before or since: a glow began to shine, and a warming sensation filled the cell and enveloped my weakened, starved frame. I felt strong arms around me, cradling me in the arms of Christ Himself. That same voice which I had heard when I had stood at the wall for two weeks spoke again. I could never describe that voice. Overwrought with love and compassion, Christ spoke to me saying, ‘My son, I shall never forsake you. My arms are around you, and in them I shall comfort you and give you strength.’”

“Tears flowed down my cheeks as I was held in the embrace of Christ. I know some readers may think this extreme, but when I was at the point of madness and despair, Christ let me know He had not forgotten me. There, huddled in the blackness of that forgotten cell in the bowels of the earth, it was a beautiful, loving embrace, and a moment that made all the suffering worthwhile. Oh, how I love Him! If all men in the world could only know Christ in His beauty and love.”

“Now I was with Christ and content to wait for death to be with Him. He talked with me, comforted me, and His presence filled the cell in almost a physical way. He held my hand in His nail-pierced hand. He knew suffering and shared the suffering of His children. Those were precious, precious days. I communed with Christ as getting weaker and weaker. I waited for death.”

Now, we know death never came, and at least at that point, and God brought him out of that 13 years, and he testified around the world. But I’m saying, Christ didn’t just send help; He was the help.

He’s a very present help in trouble. You can always count on it. So, friend, there’s a good thing about trouble. I mean, it’s a good thing. You say, “In trouble?” Yeah. Because when it comes down your road, 5-11, Ellie Drive—hey, He’ll always be there. Christ will always be there. He’ll always, always, every time.

And here’s the thing about it: Jesus, He’ll never leave you nor forsake you, but He’s there in a special way, a special way. Those three Hebrew boys, remember those Hebrew boys? They would not bend, they would not bow. I believe the rock and roll music started—[laughter]—answer the door and say, “Whoo-hoo! Trouble, I know you’re here. That’s all right. Jesus is here, too.” He’s there in a precious, special way.

Now here’s the sad thing: I’m here sometimes when trouble comes. You know what? All I do is see the trouble. I don’t look around and see Jesus there. Sometimes, well, I got to make it through this. No, no, no. Not that your sufficiency is of yourself, but our sufficiency is of God. Look around. He’ll be there. Don’t look to yourself. Don’t have the pity party. “Oh, woe is me, I got it so bad! Nobody knows how bad I got it!” No, no, look out! Jesus is out there. Go out there and look. I said, “Woo-hoo! I got a special chance to be close to Him like that.”

And it’s sad sometimes when we’re going through trouble, we don’t pray. I was thinking about Brother Fontaine. Brother Fontaine taught me a good lesson one day. And I don’t know if we were driving, but he just mentioned to me, he said, “You know, when I pull out a lot of times, I try to pray. And boy, it’s amazing. I don’t do it all the time, but so often when I do, it’s amazing.” I’m stuck in traffic, can’t get out of this, you know. Anybody ever come on the end of Baker Road, Old Nashville Highway, and you’re going to turn right or left there, and man alive, it takes you three years to get out of that, you know? Dirty, big back, back slatter. Somebody stop the traffic so I can get out, you know. And so often I’m just there for a while before I pray. Man, so many times I pray, “Lord, did you get me out of here?” And just a little bit like, boom! But how long do I wait? They’re frustrated and mad. It’s just little trouble, little trouble. He’s there. He’s a very present help in trouble.

Shame on me. All I wanted to do was go out there and complain and grab about the trouble. I’d open the door and say, “Woo-hoo! Jesus is out here! He is the help!” He wants you to glorify Him. I love that. Psalm 50:15: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Man, when you call on Him in time of trouble, He doesn’t say, “Well, I’m getting tired of them calling.” It brings Him glory. He likes it when you call on Him.

He’s like children. You know, they—well, you know, Mom and Dad have helped me. Little children years ago. Years ago, we had a little bit of Yorkie, you know. How many of you have ever seen our little bit of Yorkie, Bell? She is 15, 16 years old, yeah. And can about halfway see out of one eye, and she can halfway hear out of one ear, you know. Funniest thing, she just really can’t—she runs into us so often, and then you know, like we hit her, she ran into us, you know. And but and then you’ll be trying to talk, she don’t hear a high pitch storm, but sometimes you just get real low, “Bell,” you know, and she’ll hear that. If you’re loud and it’s a lower tone, she’ll hear that. But I think she just hears that out of one ear because she always looks the wrong direction, you know. I mean, I’m here right here, you know, she’ll look over there, “Where is it coming from?” you know. She can’t see, can’t hear. Bell—that’s Bell.

But Bell, when she was younger, she was in the yard out there playing one time in the back. There’s electric fences, the horses back in there, somebody else is their neighbor. And the electric fence was on, and she’s got a nub for a tail, a little flag, you know. And she was in that backyard, you know, and she could go right underneath that bottom wire of electric fence, no problem at all. But that little nub was sticking up, just that little flag, just waving back and forth on a good, beautiful, sunshiny day in the backyard. We’re all out in the yard, you know. And sure enough, sure enough, that little flag—she kept going underneath that lower wire, you know, just going. And one time, a little higher on the ground the wires, you know, boy, that old nub just touched that wire. You could hear her sound like three miles away. And she came running all the way across the yard. Tammy takes care of her, but she gets security for me for some reason. She ran all the way across the yard straight to me. Got like, “Dad, help me! Somebody just hit me! Shoot me that!” you know. And, you know, a little bit inside of me, I thought a little bit, “Well, Bell, I’m glad when you got hurt, you came to me.” And God’s the same way.

And you get hit, you run right to God. He’s so happy about that. “Now thou shalt glorify me.” He’ll always be there as a very present help in trouble.

Sometimes trouble is a good thing. What’s that? Philippians 3:10: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.” Sometimes you can’t get really any closer to Him until you go through some fellowship of suffering. He gets so close to Him. Trouble’s not always a bad thing. He gets to know Christ in a wonderful way. He comes there. He just, like Harland Popoff, He comes to you just in a way you’ve never, ever known in all your life. He’s a very present help.

I was in chapel years ago in Bible College, and Bob Hooker—he’s the man that’s coming to preach our men’s retreat coming up—he’s got six daughters. Can you imagine trying to get in the restroom on Sunday morning? Can you imagine the curling irons, amen? And the hair straighteners and the eyeballs and eyelashes? I don’t know about all that, you know, but all those things in there, you know. But I was a single student. I mean, all I had to pay for myself. He was going through Bible because, of course, years earlier than me. And he’s married and he had six girls. And he really had to just depend on the Lord to get him to the Bible college. And he got up and preached one day in chapel, and he just told story after story how God had miraculously provided for him.

This is a—I won’t say in some ways—a dumb prayer I had here, you know, but in the end it’s a good thing. But he got done preaching that day, and he told just so many, just wonderful stories how God had provided for him. And I said, “Lord, I’m a single guy going through college. You know, I had a pretty good job. I dropped out. Hard for me. Lord, I’d like to have some stories to tell one day.”

Well, man, it wasn’t too far after that. I wrecked my car. Wasn’t two—about that same week, I got laid off from a job. Trouble came. But you know who else came with the trouble? Jesus. He’s a very present help in trouble. You know, after that semester was over, I had a lot of trouble, but I got stories to tell about that semester. Not just, and I can’t remember God provided just left and right. And I can’t remember, but I remember after that semester was over, I thought, “Lord, you heard my prayer.” And I can remember some just miracles God did that time. But I’m saying it came in the form of trouble, but Jesus comes with trouble.

And so when trouble comes, don’t say, “Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?” Say, “Whew! Praise the Lord! Jesus is a very present help.” And you’ll get to know Him, and you get to see Him work like never before.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Maybe you’re here tonight and I hope the Lord used it to encourage you to not to live in fear. Maybe you’re here tonight and you say, “Preacher, I don’t want to live in fear anymore. I’m just going to trust, not just in His blessings and His help, but I’m going to trust in Him.” And God spoke to my heart. “I don’t want to live in fear. I want to live living by faith. And by God’s grace, help me just to choose—make a decision. I’m going to live by faith, resting and trusting in Him tonight.” God spoke to my heart about that. “I don’t want to live in fear. I want to live in faith, trusting the Lord.” God spoke to your heart about that tonight? You slip your hand up. Preacher, ask me. God bless you. God bless you. That’s such a wise decision we have to make often. And thank you so much for that. The Lord work in your heart. That’s a wonderful thing.

Maybe you’re here tonight and you say, “You know, when I have trouble, I’m going to just not—oh no, trouble! I’m going to look for Him. I’m going to find the grace. I’m going to look. I’m going to go outside the door, open the door, and I’m just going to look for trouble and complain. But I’m going to go outside, open the door, and I’m going to look around for Jesus.” And God spoke to my heart, “I need to look for Him. I need to get my eyes of faith looking for Jesus in the time of trouble.” God spoke to my heart about that. That’s you? That’s me right there. That’s me. God bless you. God bless you. Amen. Amen. Me too. Me too. Thank you. Thank you.

One more question. You say, “Preacher, you know, I’m not going to focus necessarily just on the help. I want to thank Him for it and everything, give thanks. I want to praise Him for it. But I want to go beyond that, and I want to keep my mind stayed on Him. And I want to see not just the blessings, but I want to see the Blesser.” I want not all the blessings to be my refuge, but I want God to be my refuge. And God spoke to my heart about that. “I don’t want to be jealous for the blessing; I want to see Him.” If God spoke to your heart, would you just lift up your hand? Pray, “God spoke to my heart about that.” Oh, me too. He too. He’s a jealous God. He loves the faith, the trust. Greatest commandment in all the Bible: Love Him. He loves your love, your affection. He wants that. He’s your Dad.

Would you please stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. Would you spend some time with Him tonight? Would you just warm up to Him and love Him and praise Him? Thank you. Help me live in faith. I don’t know why I fear, but I do. Help me keep my eyes on Him. Tell Him all those things. Would you do that?

Father, thank you that you’re a very present help in trouble. Help us to live in faith and joy and rest in that promise, and in You. Thank you. We can do it. Help us to do so. Even the faith to do it is from You. And Lord, we just rejoice You’ve got everything under control. Help us to rest in You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - See the Blesser not the blessings - - Sunday PM 3262023